Portrait of the Artists

"Direct from our newsroom in New York--in color--this is the CBS Evening for News, with Arnold Zenker substituting for Walter Cronkite and. . ." Arnold Zenker? Across the U.S. last week, televiewers gawked curiously at the unfamiliar faces--balding salesmen, pert secretaries, scrubbed junior executives--telling about "Veet Nom," "Cheeze Juftif Warren," "cloddy skies" and "mosterly easterly winds." All, like 28-year-old Arnold Zenker, manager of program administration for CBS, were filling in--and sometimes falling apart--for regular newscasters as the result of a strike called by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

The walkout, the first in the union's 30-year-history, involved announcers, newsmen, disk jockeys and performers working on TV and radio stations owned by CBS, NBC, ABC and the Mutual Broadcasting System. The principal issue in the dispute is a salary increase for 100 newsmen at network-owned stations in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The union was demanding a base salary of $325 plus 50% of the fees earned from sponsored programs; the networks are offering $300 and 25%.

Swallow or Spit? Though lumping all these people in a union of "artists" is a bit like calling a tailback a tap dancer, the performance of some of the pinch newscasters was worthy of an Emmy, or at least a Hammy, for the best comedy show of the season. Scripts rattled, eyes squinted at TelePrompTers. In Chicago, WLS Advertising Director Frank Nardi made his broadcasting debut as a substitute disk jockey, struggled hysterically to keep up the machinegun patter. Sample: "Hey there! That was the great Ramsey Lewis Duo. . . aah. . .trio. . .whee. . .It's. . .aah. . . . . .three minutes. . .aah. . .I mean twelve minutes after three. . . wheee." At Chicago's WBBM-TV, Salesman Frank Palmer all but burned up the airways. Winding up the 5 p.m. news, he lit his pipe just like a real Walter Cronkite, burned his fingers, dumped tobacco all over the desk, grinned wanly and shrugged. In Los Angeles, KNBC viewers telephoned the station to complain that Pinch Newscaster Harry Howe was chewing gum while reading the financial news. Not so, Howe later explained. Seems that while struggling with all those Dow-Jones figures, he dislodged a filling in his tooth and, not knowing whether to swallow it or spit it out, bounced it from cheek to cheek between syllables.

Morning, Hugh. On the first day of the strike, Hugh Downs, host of NBC's Today show, arrived live and in color at Manhattan's RCA Building in a pelting rain, disembarked from his NBC-supplied limousine, clapped on his sandwich board, popped open his umbrella, walked the picket line for a while, popped back into his Caddy and drove off. Other familiar pickets, such as Bud Collyer, Edwin Newman and Peter Jennings, were kept busy signing autographs, using the back of each other's signs for support. But whatever frivolity existed on the picket line during the early hours of the strike was later tempered by NBC News caster Chet Huntley's announcement that he would not honor the walkout because A.F.T.R.A. is a union of "singers, actors, jugglers, announcers, entertainers and comedians whose problems have no relation to ours." He sent a telegram to 40 fellow newsmen calling for their support and suggesting that a National Labor Relations Board election be held to decide representation and possible withdrawal of newscasters from the union. Claiming that he had received the approval of 37 of the 40 newsmen, Huntley said: "If I carry the ball, they're completely behind me."

Good Night, Chet! NBC Newsmen Frank McGee, Morgan Beatty and Ray Scherer joined Huntley in crossing the picket line. At the other networks, CBS's Cronkite and ABC's Howard K. Smith demurred. Said Cronkite: "I think the time to complain is past. If you don't like the army, you get out before the battle starts." As for David Brinkley, the Washington-based half of the Huntley-Brinkley Report, he stayed out of the controversy and away from the studio. The reaction of some newsmen to the Huntley-Huntley Report was good night, Chet! Snapped NBC's Jack Costello: "Chet Huntley is the biggest liar and scab in the world." But most seemed to agree with ABC's Jules Bergman: "Huntley's stand is valid, but we won't forgive him because he weakened our position." At Hurley's bar in Manhattan, hangout for network staffers, one picketer placed a photograph of Huntley in the window and wreathed it with black crepe paper. Whatever the upshot of the strike, it at least provided the best broadcasting entertainment of the year.

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